Judge orders U.S. to delay deporting Indonesians in immigration fight

BOSTON (Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday ordered U.S. immigration officials to delay any efforts to deport 51 Indonesians living illegally in New Hampshire so the group can have time to argue that changing conditions in that country would make it dangerous to return.

The order affects a group of Indonesian Christians who fled violence in that country two decades ago and had been living openly for years in New England under an informal deal. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in August began ordering them to prepare to leave the country within two months.

Most members of the group covered by the 2010 deal with ICE entered the United States legally but overstayed their visas and failed to seek asylum on time.

Beginning in August, members of the group who showed up for ICE check-ins were told to prepare to leave the country, in keeping with U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration.

Members of the group have said in interviews with Reuters that they fear they would face persecution or violence for their Christian faith and Chinese ethnicity if they were returned to the world’s largest majority-Muslim country.

FILE PHOTO: Demonstrators hold an "Interfaith Prayer Vigil for Immigrant Justice" outside the federal building, where ethnic Chinese Christians who fled Indonesia after wide scale rioting decades ago and overstayed their visas in the U.S. must check-in with ICE, in Manchester, New Hampshire, U.S. on October 13, 2017. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo

Federal law gives authority over immigration matters to the executive branch, not the courts. Chief U.S. District Judge Patti Saris in Boston found she had authority to ensure the Indonesians have a chance to argue that conditions in their home country had deteriorated significantly enough to reopen their cases for trying to stay in the United State.

She worried that without the order, ICE officials could deport some of the Indonesians covered by the suit, at which time they would lose the opportunity to have their cases reopened.

FILE PHOTO: Demonstrators hold an "Interfaith Prayer Vigil for Immigrant Justice" outside the federal building, where ethnic Chinese Christians who fled Indonesia after wide scale rioting decades ago and overstayed their visas in the U.S. must check-in with ICE, in Manchester, New Hampshire, U.S. on October 13, 2017. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo

“The government shall inform the court whether petitioners, who are not detained, will have access to emergency procedures if they must file their original motions to reopen,” Saris wrote.

“We are reviewing the decision and will comply with the court order,” ICE spokesman Shawn Neudauer said in an email.

ICE officials said in federal court filings that they would appeal an earlier decision by Saris telling the agency to hold off deporting any of the Indonesians covered by the agreement.

The Indonesians are part of an ethnic community of about 2,000 people clustered around the city of Dover, New Hampshire. Their cause has drawn the support of the state’s all-Democratic congressional delegation, including U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen and Republican Governor Chris Sununu.